Shared Parental Leave

[undomesticgodde55]

Me and my partner are TTC baby #1, and are both keen to share the parental leave. We both have full time careers and I would eventually love to be a stay at home parent.

Currently I will take the first 3 months off and he will then take the next 6 months parental leave. We have a few reasons why we want to share, he has much better parental benefits with his work meaning financially we would be a lot better off. Also because I am so keen to be a stay at home parent I really want him to understand what it is like to stay at home with a child, and I also want to know what it is like working full time and coming home to a child (bit of role reversal so we can both appreciate what the other is going through).

I was just wondering what others experiences of shared parental leave have been, good? Bad? Did anything not go to plan and how did your employers take the news?

I had 5 months off and had to go back to work, hated it. I’m not one of those maternal types but found that I missed baby hugely and the sleep deprivation killed me

I went back to work after 4 months. I spent effort on early "sleep training" and it has completely paid off. It is amazing how much easier things might seem after a decent night sleep. Of course, I still missed DD but I found that getting back to work to some extent helped me regain self-confidence and feeling that I am again in control of my life.